Disclaimer: I own what isn't recognized.
All the character's looks are based on how they looked in the movies. The story is about many different times in the character's lives. It isn't all in one setting but it's mostly in Oklahoma.
{Julia, 1973}
Wild Thing
In my dream, I'm nineteen years old again in 1966, and it's a summer night in Tulsa. Mama and all us kids- Wade, Terry, Benny, and me- are swimming in the river. Everyone else is there too; the people I grew up with and love more than anything are looking at us, smiling. Terry's gang is there; six lean, mean guys that, with Terry, call themselves the Sevens. Troi Denton was there and outside of the gangs, he'd been my best friend since forever.
Mama goes inside and puts the new Troggs record on. She turns the volume up so loud just how we all like it. I get out of the water in my under-dress and start dancing like there wouldn't be a tomorrow! Mama comes over to me and takes my hand and we start going wild. We sway our hips and roll our heads and swing our arms up into the air and, oh, I feel so free! Everyone around us is hollering and singing along:
Wild thing, I think I love you… but I want to know for sure. So come on, hold me tight. I love you.
"There you go, dahlin'," Mama says. "Keep dancing. This is your song."
And it is. Ever since that song came out, it was mine. Mama told me so, and what that woman says, goes.
When I wake up, I'm twenty six years old and crying my eyes out on my couch in the tiny apartment I call home. I remembered my friends – the Curtis brothers, Dallas Winston, Two-Bit Mathews, Steve Randal, and Rachael Gordon. I remembered the proud Sevens- Terry, Charlie Torrance, David Torrance, Clinton Walker, Tyler Jameson, Louis Rowles, and Pete Wilder. I remember how we used to be. 1966 was the year everything changed.
We lived at Pine Grove our whole lives. It was built in the early 1800's by our great granddaddy August, and was passed down throughout the generations. Pine Grove means a lot to the family. It's the place where, on lazy summer nights, the boys and I would chase fireflies and put them in big jars to use them as nightlights to keep the Boogyman at bay. On clear nights, when the stars were real bright, Mama and her girlfriends played Poker on the porch while Daddy would sneak his beer to Wade to let him take sips before Mama could catch them. The boys and I would play hide-and-go-seek through the corn stocks. Mama would lay down with us and tickle our faces with the tall grass. Terry would run around the fields with the red blanket tied around his neck as a makeshift cape. One night, in the field past the corn stocks, when the frogs croaked extra loud and the stars seemed extra bright, Sodapop Curtis kissed me for the first time.
These were the days of my youth.
These were the days that I have held to my heart for years.
These were the days that I miss.